Colors of Ambition

Finally able to delve into the silver mine fully, the party discovers a separate complex of tunnels, deliberately and meticulously dug. Finally making himself known is Guard Commander Ezzr’k, and a party of drow soldiers. The party and the dark elves do battle, and Ezzr’k succumbs to Jace’s summoned scorpions. Jace raises the fallen officer’s body, and sends him off into the wilderness with no explanation to his comrades in arms.

Venturing further into the now unguarded complex, the party finds a curious door, bearing 14 small depressions and the emblem of a spider; the door exhibits some magical properties of an unknown nature, but obviously of great power.

On the way back to town, however, the party finds themselves suddenly in an alien, inhospitable wasteland, with multiple suns and moons looming overhead. A robed, skeletal figure, mounted on a massive and equally skeletal dragon appear, and single out Jace to appear before his god. As abruptly as it appeared, the party finds themselves back on the road to Dolmere… sans Jace.

Returning to town, the party finds reinforcements from the Lions Bureau in Arabel: serendipitously, it is Jace’s twin brother, who has no shortage of questions about his brother’s whereabouts.

The party tracks down a drow assassin, caught unawares and meditating in a tree. Clearly the perpetrator of Tharivol and the prisoner’s murders, this further development only raises more questions than it answers. Why were Tharivol and the imprisoned drow targeted? DId they know something, or was this just the dark elf penchant for vengance?

Another trip to the mine is cut short when the party is attacked by a giant spider in the night. Returning to town to recover, things take a turn for the worse when Tharivol and the drow prisoner murdered in a fashion that seemed meant to send a message. The party tracks a blood trail, leading out of town, suspiciously in the direction of the dark elf-infested silver mine.

A second excursion to the silver mine to investigate the drow prescence nets a tactical gain: an encounter with a drow patrol ends in one drow dead, and another taken prisoner. He proves unresponsive, to questioning, however, and the party resolves to investigate deeper into the mine.

A new Lion arrives in Dolmere from the Lions Bureau in Arabel, bearing the party’s new orders. They are to remain in Dolmere to support the local militia, whose numbers have been dwindling lately due to unprecedented Drow activity in the hills outside town, in the vicinity of an abandoned silver mine.
Investigating the mine, the group encounters a shaken elf namedTharivol, who found himself captive of the Drow. One Drow is dead, and another held captive in the Dolmere stockade, and Tharivol relates a fantastic story:

The god of the elves, Corellon Larethain and Eilistraee, patron goddess of good-aligned Drow, have long battled with Lolth, despotic spider goddess of the dark elves. Lolth had been subdued, and her essence trapped inside the Qizz’k, a cloudy, dark purple stone the size of an orc’s head. Corellon shattered the Qizz’k, and scattered the shards across Faerûn. Tharivol had come into possession of one of these stones, and traveled here to investigate the Drow presence. He believes that the Drow are guarding a holy weapon, that might defeat the Spider Queen permanently.

The stone Tharivol carries is identical in appearance to the stone inside the talisman formerly belonging to the madman Dunsey.

The party returns to Dolmere to recover from battle, and further research the mine, discovering that someone, or something else has been digging in the region. Duergar, the subterranean gray dwarves, are known for thier peculiar mining techniques…

Awakening in the kitchen of Lord Dunsey’s ruined manor, the party continues their search for the origins of the dagger. The mysteries of the manor’s basement are soon revealed, as Dunsey himself rises from the grave in the presence of his precious artifact.
The ghoulish figure is quickly defeated, and the party returns to Dolmere.

The party receives new orders to remain in Dolmere for the time being, and use the downtime to do a little research at the local archive. Finding a reference to a nobleman purchasing a curious dagger who then went insane, the party travels north to investigate the ruins of Lord Dunsey’s manor.
With nightfall approaching, and a storm on the horizon, the party elects to seek refuge inside, only to find the ruins infested with dire rats and skeletons. They fight their way to the kitchen, hoping to barricade themselves in for the night, with Dunsey’s disturbing final journal entry in the front of their minds.

Following the trail into the forest, the Lions stumble across a compound in a large clearing. The residence of a group of Red Wizards, the magocratic order of Thay, the Red Wizards live and produce minor magic scrolls and potions for sale.

Inquiring about the missing brothers Tamm and Elom, the party is quickly introduced to Kizzak, a short tempered, shaven-headed female mage and the Red Wizards’ leader, a woman named Hinnar. Kizzak is quickly shown to be concealing the truth, and and is killed by Ogg in a bid to escape… but not before summoning a pair of zombie cohorts to aid in her flight. This threat is easily dealt with.

Hinnar pleads ignorance to Kizzak’s motives or actions, but allows the party to search her private quarters. Finding a wig of long, dark hair and a vague letter promising payment on receipt of goods, signed “A.M.” The letter bears a waxen seal used only by the Red Wizards.

With no further leads to follow, the party eventually returns to Dolmere to rest and recuperate. However, Jace Calmcacil is once again drawn to the well in the square. Buried at the bottom, is a curious dagger: seemingly carved out of a single piece of onyx-like stone, in a delicate floral filigree. It proves painful to the touch, and Jace wraps it in a cloth and carries it out of the well. Perhaps the library in Dolmere holds some obscure clue to the artifact’s nature.

As to the unfulfilled contract to locate the Milner brothers, the wagon that the party followed out of town now has a three day lead, and only a flimsy connection to a kingdom thousands of leagues to the east.

A three-man rookie squad of Lions arrives in Dolmere to honor a contract: locate two brothers; debtors to a local merchant. The squad falls in with a strange companion: an anthropomorphic weasel who longs to be a knight; driven by old tales of glory and honor.

The investigation leads to the brothers’ primary drinking hole, where a lead about a tall, dark haired woman and a clue from an inebriated gutter-rat leads to a strange set of tracks leading away from town. Along the road goes a wagon, drawn by two horses. Into the wilderness, towards an encampment of merchant wizards, leads a feminine set of footprints.

But what of the strange well at the center of town? Simply a red herring? Or an important link to the current job?